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I 



THE WRECK OF THE MYRTLE, 
AND Other Verses. A collection of 
Ballads, Odes and Lyrics. Printed and 
bound uniformly with this volume ; 
128 pages, izmo. $1.25 net; $1.31 
postpaid. 

THE PALACE OF VISION, a Poem ; 
$1.50 net, postpaid. 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE ACORN PRESS. 



THE PALACE OF VISION 



" Thy mind 
Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms. 
Thy memory be as a dwelling-place 
For all sweet sounds and harmonies." 

Tintern Abbey, — WORDSWORTH. 



rhe 


PALACE 


O F 


V I S I 


N 


A 


P O E 


M 




By 




WILBUR MORRIS 


STINE 




^g^ 






w 




THE 


ACORN PRESS 


s w 


A R T H M O 

PENNSYLVANIA 
1904 


R E 



THE PALACE OF VISION 



LIBRAITY of CONGRESS 

1\vo Oopies ReMived 

AUG 26 1904 

©ooyrtjrht Enfry 

CLASS Cl xXo. Na 

Cj ^ Z S 
COPY B 

l iTUMI I I I I II I 



copyright, 1904, 
By Wilbur Morris Stine 
All rights r e s e r <v e d 






THE ACORN PRESS 

Electrotyped by 

Westcott and Thomson 

Philadelphia 






THE CONTENTS 

PAGE 

I. FANCY 

To the calm and noble chambers of a refuge 

Fancy knows .... 9 

II. DEVOTION 

Led by charm transcendent move the eyes the 

painted scenes amid ... 29 

III. NOBILITY 

Far along the lengthening passage y on its spa- 
cious, spreading vault ... 47 

IV. NATURE 
Past the symbols on the panels, that attest the 

worth of soul .... 57 
5 



6 ^be Contents 

PAGE 

V. AFFLICTION 

Passing scenes of sylvan fancies that a vivid 

art has won .... 67 

VI. INCARNATION 

O/?, athwart the passage gleams a burst of 

mellowed light . . , . 85 

VII. WISDOM 

In the charm of mellowed sunlight y gleams the 

lucent marble low ... 99 

VIII. TENDERNESS 
As it fell in revelation that might guide the 

grosser sight . . , . 115 

IX. HUMANITY 

Just a touch of human pathos falls upon the 

marbles rare . . . . 131 

COMMENTARIA .... 147 



I. FANCY 



The Palace of Vision 



I. FANCY 

'TpO the calm and noble chambers of a 

refuge Fancy knows, 
Where the wealth of dreams we cherish, it 
with lavish hand bestows. 

Turns the spirit overwearied, longing for their 
far retreat 

From the goad of care incessant, pressing bur- 
den and the heat 

Life full lays in measure common of the 

round of alien things, 
Which, the heart and task divorcing, bind to 

earth the spirit's wings ; — 
9 



10 XTbe palace ot IDision 

Turns the soul in stress of anguish under sore 

bereavement bowed, 
For the respite life denied it, and the balm it 

disallowed. 

There the heart confused with turmoil, bends 

to seek its calm and peace ; 
And the hot and restless fever of its days finds 

sweet surcease. 

CL In the chambers of soul-vision, wonderful 
and haunting fair. 

Sacred hid from cold intrusion, laid in far, en- 
chanted air, — 

There our loves abide in spirit and intrude not 

carnally, 
While the warm breath of their rapture grows 

more tender mystery ; 

There the pain of joy that saddens, and the 

lingering pangs that bless. 
Fall in minor strains of music, echoing with 

tenderness ; 



3fanci2 1 1 

There the laughter of the day-world rises like 

a gladsome song; 
And the mirthful eyes bewitching, beauty's 

spell in dreams prolong. 

ft In its airy realm enchanting, evening shad- 
ows fall more soft ; 

While there faintly sound the distant, lingering 
tones of bells, aloft 

From some belfry high and elfin, ringing cho- 
rals to the night, 

Through whose measured melodies there 
thrills an exquisite delight. 

€t In the realm of the soul's possessions, 
stretching outward in its pride, 

Till earth's poverty of riches in its bounds is 
satisfied, — 

There, repression of the fancy, as it rose in 

fierce desire, 
Yields to bounteous wealth supernal for the 

hearts, who may aspire, 



12 ^be ipalace ot IDision 

That the lavish hand of Fancy gathers to re- 
pay the loss, 

Life inflicts in fate unkindly : pure the store is, 
free from dross; 

Nobler than the precious jewels, finer than the 
hoarded gold ; 

While it gathers more of splendor, as its treas- 
ures more unfold. 

Wealth it has, no lack of riches, this far realm 

of magic air ; 
And no splendor thought can fashion, fails of 

perfect glory there. 

Ct For the potent realm of vision holds in 

store, surpassing earth. 
Growing how we lavish spend it, ours by right 

of time and birth, — 

Worth of soul innate with greatness, glorious 

heights that it would win ; 
Treasures of the thought, and rapture that it 

jealous guards within ; 



n 



fanes 1 3 

Passing glories of the spirit, with uncloying 

splendors bright; 
Strains unsung of cadenced music, ravishing 

with fine delight ; — 

Sacred treasures, what is whispered low in awe 
to the spirit^s ear 

Of a fire divine inspiring, and the glow of ge- 
nius clear ; — 

Here are owned in full confession, and neglect 

and envious scorn 
Cloud them not with shame belittling, nor 

may power their worth suborn. 

Ct In the realm with dreams we people, 

stands the palace of the soul : 
Nobly walled, high-towered and lofty ; framed 

with zeal to glorious whole ; 

Reared through the years, we build unceasing, 
striving how our hands are weak, 

Building how the heart may fail us, — while 
in nobler air we seek. 



14 XLbc palace ct Dision 

For the earth of disappointment, commonplace 

and barren-grey, 
Realm of glowing fancy splendid with the 

light of rarer day. 

High of wall and higher vaulted, groined with 

arch of airy span. 
Holds the palace spacious chambers fashioned 

into noble plan ; 

Vast in grandeur, they have largeness that 

transcends the meagre space. 
Circumstance on man imposes for his carnal 

dwelling-place. 

d. In the chambers of a palace battlemented, 

grand and bold, 
Standing on some cliff of fancy, bathed in 

flood of sunlight gold ; 

Verdure-crowned and wistful with romance 

denied in earthly love. 
Stands it regal in its seeming, lifting high its 

walls above. 



3fancs 1 5 

Nobly crowned with towers imposing, bast- 

ioned with defying strength, 
Line on line in grandeur rising till they fret 

the sky at length ; — 

Here the soul finds its whole freedom, how it 

moves in servile round 
Bound by birth and chance of station, and by 

custom crueler bound ; 

And held fast by task and duty, that would 

mock its longings high, 
Lest through them its slave should falter. And 

how Fortune may deny, 

Steadfast in the worth of being and the spirit's 

true acclaim. 
There the soul wins exaltation nobler than 

the gift of fame ; 

Though its life may pass unheeded by the 

throngs who eager press, 
Like a herd of cattle, after fools who lead 

their eagerness 



16 XTbc palace ot IDision 

By deceit and fair delusions, — following them 
for fatuous gain, 

That attained is naught in holding, and ac- 
quired is but in vain. 

C. Through the pleasant, spacious chambers 

Fancy spreads her rarest rays, 
Bathing them in warmth of color ; through the 

window's stain there plays 

Mellowed light and tone, as softened waves of 

brilliant sunsets' gleam 
Mingling fell upon their pavement, wavering 

like a dancing stream : 

Till the light of pleasing fancies and the tints 
of prismal glow. 

Rest in moving, tender brightness with a radi- 
ance softened, low. 

Upon walls of stately bearing and on ceilings 

arching high ; 
While the air is thrilled with secrets that on 

dawn and sunset lie. 



3Panci2 1 7 

d. In the light lies wonder mystic, soft as in 

cathedral nave, 
When the rays from pictured windows fall in 

tender, mingled wave, 

And the columned space is gleaming with 

ethereal fires of light 
That, in mist-like radiance falling from a 

hushed and solemn height, 

Are the gold of the noon's high sun-tide, that 

a secret power transforms 
Into memories of the sunset and the irised 

bow of storms. 

And the sheen breaks into music of a choral 

glow of fire. 
Sung in myriad waves of color, sweet attuned 

in radiant choir. 

€t Past the chambers mellow lighted from 

the window's pictured fret. 
In entrancing, dreamy vistas halls palatial, 

opening yet 

B 



18 ^be palace of IDfsion 

Into softer, mellowed distance, more inviting 

lead the view, 
Where the charms in memory sleeping their 

enchantments old renew ; 

And the art of ancient masters, that in mem- 
ory more enthralls 

By ennobling touch of fancy, lays its splendon 
on the walls. 

And across the distant vision, fair creations of 

the thought 
Won to form from laughing eyes and hints 

with lingering transports fraught, — 

There, are seen in lovely being, that supernal 

charms reveals 
In the gleam of form enrapturing : scarce the 

veil of mist conceals 

Eyes that light with fascination of a spell that 

binds the heart; 
And the mould of curves diviner, than from 

storied marbles start. 



3fanci2 1 9 

C Far, along the deepening vista, fall the 
wavering lights below 

Upon pavements rich in fashion, where mo- 
saics polished glow, 

Mingling jeweled stone with whitest marble 

in their rare design. 
Soft the distant splendor kindles, while the 

crystal flames far shine 

In the gleaming ; and their fires with flush of 

fainter lights are blent, 
As, to fading glow of sunset, silver faint the 

star is lent. 

C Bordered are the halls palatial, leading far 

with transept crossed. 
By array of noble columns, that contemn the 

gauge of cost. 

Rising from a base of emerald, porphyry, or 

marble veined, 
With their fluted, polished shafts enwreathed 

with circling ivy trained 



20 XTbe palace of msion 

Into poise of living spirals that, like Nature's 
twining green, 

Mount the stone, their gilded splendor blend- 
ing with the granite's sheen. 

Chaste Corinthian capitals with clustered oaken 

leaves and scroll, 
Wrought from lucent marble, crown them to 

majestic whole, 

That, aspiring high and noble, from mosaics 

patterned rare 
Bear upon the lofty grandeur arch and vault in 

higher air. 

Ct There we, lords of our possessions, stand 

on threshold of the halls, 
And the eyes in charm and wonder, as on nave 

and pillar falls 

Light ethereal touched with mystery, — kindle 

on from scene to scene — 
Each new splendor more enchanting, each far 

glow more radiant seen ; — 



fmct 21 

While the heart is thrilled with glories of the 

treasured dreams it knew, 
And half fears to cast beyond it, lest some 

spell dissolve the view, — 

Fears, and scarce believes before it lies in a 

burst of splendor high. 
What in round of life is pain and longing that 

must end in sigh. 

For the splendor seems for life too golden and 

too lightly won ; 
And, by disenchanting care, it must as lightly 

be undone. 

Here, to inner sense of soul, unfolds the wealth 

it secret hides. 
Won from inspiration, that divinely on its life 

abides ; 

And it sees in glorious being hues, whose col- 
ors write in fire 

All the glow and passion in them and their 
depths of sweet desire. 



22 ^be iPalacc of vision 

€L Here, before it grandly passes ancient 

pomp and stately show 
Of processions dim, majestic, that, through 
ages, passing slow, 

Laud the deeds of noble daring ; or, in vast 

cathedral dim, 
Move in splendid worship reverently to low, 

impassioned hymn, 

On whose melodies are laid the burden and 

the pang of prayer, 
Till the choral thrilled with pleading trembles 

on the awe-hushed air : 

And the worship, half-barbaric, lifts the dark- 
ened souls above. 

Till the yearnings of the spirit, mystic, tender, 
melt in love. 

CL From the fancied pomp of stately show, 

and worship of the sense ; 
From the columned nave, and charming vista, 

turns the vision thence. 



Toward the vault that lifts on airy arch its 

broad, encircling space, 
And beholds there new enchantment wrought 

in high, ennobling grace. 

On the soffit and the ceiling, like the Sistine*s 

storied vault. 
Loom in seried splendor, that the skill of art 

can not exalt, 

Frescos fine as hand of Raphael might have 

traced in eager stress 
Of his perfect art and vision : filled with grace 

and tenderness, 

That, upon his art inspiring, like a touch im- 
pelling, came. 

Till the fire divine had kindled into glow of 
deathless flame ; 

And the pain of his high vision had been 

wrought in living art. 
That forever stays in being, while, forever, 

there upstart 



24 XLbc ipalace of Dision 

From it pulse and thrill of life in truth of pas- 
sion and its glow, — 

Smile of saint and frown of demon, as they 
mingling come and go. 

Ct Here delightful scenes from Nature smile, 

that Art can truer speak, 
Following the semblance, where the mind to 

know her depths is weak, 

Than the fine descriptive phrase : and, owning 

life inanimate 
Lacks the crowning charm, it lays the human 

touch to elevate 

Nature's truth with truth more spiritual : and 

draws in form half-veiled 
Fleeting grace of nymph and phantom, as in 

glee they laughed, and hailed 

Him, who wrought them into joyous being in 

the woodland cool. 
And they call where leaves are swaying, where 

the deeply mirroring pool 



3fancs 25 

Flings back grace of their abandon ; and their 

voices rise like song, 
Sweet as their own charms supernal, seen but 

in Arcadian throng. 



II. DEVOTION 



II. DEVOTION 

T ED by charm transcendent move the eyes 
^"^ the painted scenes amid, 
Till they rest on depths of woodland, whose 
dim secrets still are hid 

From the ken and song of poets, how they oft 

have raised the theme. 
Here, the living air seems holy ; through its 

calm a tinkling stream. 

In the wavering murmur of its liquid notes, is 

distant heard ; 
Lowly sounds of insect life the quiet scarce 

disturb ; a bird 

29 



30 ^bc palace of \Dieion 

Sudden thrills the air with song, whose wild, 

untutored forest note 
Sweeter is than trill of flute : it pours from its 

heart through a golden throat 

Perfect strain of gladness, that is pure abandon 

to its lays, 
With no fear of harm, or terror ; and the song 

is Nature's praise 

Welling from a heart, that music melts to 

golden notes of air 
Flung upon a dreaming woodland, like a 

burst of perfect prayer. 

C Softly, there, the leaves are swaying, danc- 
ing light in breeze of noon. 

Filled with pulse of tender verdure, that no 
breath of frost may soon 

Stay in its full tide of being ; and, upon the air 

they lay 
Murmured strains of glad contentment; while 

the wandering breezes play 



Devotion 3 1 

Soft upon them, like a viol ; winning from 

them harmonies 
Blending with the stream's bright treble into 

hymns of brooks and trees. 

€L, By the wistful stress of music ; by the deep, 

cool woodland charm ; 
Past the haunting forms of dryads — beauty 

free from taint and harm : — 

In the depths of the heart there awaken dim 

Devotion's deeper chords ; 
Thrilling low, yet grand, exalted past all joy 

that song affords. 

Sing they like some harp, that, ages long, has 

sounded mystery 
Deeper than the ken of Reason ; hymning an 

eternity 

That, with light of golden wonder, sudden 

gleams on the path of life : 
There to waken in us longings ; there to urge 

a quest and strife 



32 llbc palace of IDision 

For a grail sublimer, holier, than Arcadian val- 
leys hide, — 

Heaven descended, spirit-splendor borne upon 
celestial tide. 

CL Just beyond the woodland fancy lies a 

scene, whose meaning deep 
Yields the heart in full expression, what its 

truer moments keep 

Hid from day, and light intrusion. As the art 

of classic age, 
Whose high genius wrought in sacred themes 

its lasting heritage, 

Here had lent its inspiration, with its olden 

power supreme. 
To a hand, that later sought to gain the all of 

art's high dream 

In the present age of commerce, wholly bound 

to Mammon's shrine, — 
Reaching upward from its baseness to a vision 

more divine : 



Devotion 3 3 

Here, has genius wrought its inspiration, till 

the dream became 
Symbol of Devotion, laid in theme that Pearce 

has given to fame. 

Noble in simplicity, the vision in its pathos, 

there, 
Pleads the longing of all ages, and the cry of 

world-old prayer. 

€L Lone, upon a wooded hillside, with a faith 

unquestioning. 
Human hands have reared an altar, without 

tool and fashioning. 

Stones by Nature seamed and carven, here are 

laid by simple art; 
Upright, two ; a third them crowning bears 

the fire, whose flames upstart 

And consume the offered token, whose sweet 

savor is the sign, 
Mystic wrapped in earthly symbols, of the 

dim, unknown Divine ! 

c 



34 ZDc palace ot IDiston 

C Trees about rise high, majestic ; like some 

noble spirits fair, 
Lay they hush on face of Nature, holiness and 

awe of prayer ; — 

Hush they noise of wing and insect, bid the 

song of birds be mute 
While the high noon's minstrel utters his wild 

strain of woodland flute. 

That but lays upon the silence passing hint of 

life's deep thrill. 
Melting longing into worship and the heart to 

spirit's will. 

On the breeze the hill wide roaming, lay they 
hush of evening hour. 

While the flame's low murmur rises till, in ar- 
dent spirit power. 

It leaps forth, a gleaming token that the sacri- 
fice is owned 

By the Power, whose fatherhood within the 
human heart is throned. 



Devotion 3 5 

Ct Then the breeze, like chanting minstrel, 
lays its skill on trembling leaves. 

And they wake to murmuring chorus that a 
tender anthem weaves, — 

Chorused low, like organ sounding and, anon, 

like *cello strain : 
And the passion of all holy sweetness sings in 

its refrain. 

Low, till lost in echoes, falls the anthem ; then 

from distant solitude 
Swell the murmurs, till in perfect song the 

choral is renewed. 

And in strength of strains victorious, some far 

hope the song declares, — 
Joy to thrill of joyance, while the sylvan scene 

the gladness shares : 

How this life may press with sorrows ; how its 

burden bears with pain ; 
How to dust its frame returneth : yet the soul 

shall live again ! 



36 ^be IPalace of IDision 

€L, In the hush of Nature's temple, broken 

but by wind-blown hymn ; 
By the altar holy, mystic, crowned by viewless 

seraphim, 

Side by side in mutual yearning kneel here 

two with low-bowed head. 
One is man, some far ancestor, who upon the 

hill has led 

Sportive dance, mayhap, or followed some far 

cry of heated chase ; 
But whose heart is speaking, and he bends a 

reverent face. 

While the sacred fire consumes the savory 
meat his prowess sought. 

That he offers in his weakness to a Power be- 
yond his thought. 

Ct Mute of words, no voice he utters; but, 

upon his lips is laid. 
All the longing that the heart knows, — as a 

dim, sweet mystery played 



Devotion 3 7 

Veiled before his ardent fancy, nameless in its 

ecstasy. 
Swift it passes. Through his heart there 

moves the voiceless agony 

Laid by death, as love departed and its prayer 

was all in vain ; 
Through it pours the sorrow and the pang of 

life, its goad of pain ; 

Lingering void of disappointment, and remorse 

from sting of sin ; 
Whispered yearnings moist with tears ; and all 

its cries repressed within. 

Low he bows with voiceless burden of his 

prayer, while on his heart 
Pours the flood of mingled agony the pains of 

life impart ; — 

All the cry of prayer that mankind lift forever 

to the skies 
Echoes in his mute petition, rises from his 

sacrifice ! 



3 8 tibe palace of Diston 

CL Soft the melody and sweetness of the for- 
est-murmured hymn 

Steals upon his heart and being with a burden 
vast and dim. 

Kneels he there, a far ancestor, bowed in wor- 
ship for a race : 

Pleading for all time and ages, that, with slow 
and wearied pace, 

Wounded sore and mad with anguish, victims 

of relentless Foe, 
Press the strife of life and yield them, lifting 

cry of helpless woe. 

Bent with agony unuttered, mute with prayer 

ineffable. 
Bows he there his soul in worship of the 

Power Invisible; 

Mingling with his pangs the mystery, thrill of 

wonder and the awe 
Of a world past all his knowing, past his ken 

of rule and law. 



2)evotion 39 

C. Man for mankind, bowed he worships, — 
striver with its strife oppressed, — 

Type of human invocation, seeking love in 
yearning quest ; 

Seeking peace past all disturbing, longing for 

a harmony 
Sweeter far than earth-breathed music, nobler 

than its melody. 

Through his silent agony his heart the bene- 
diction pleads, 

Which shall reconcile with good his preying 
griefs and sateless needs. 

And shall be the real for earnest longings, that 

he knows are true : 
Laying on his life a beauty deeper than the 

passing hue. 

€t By his side, of form diviner, — mystery 

high and sweet as prayer, — 
Fairer than her human comrade, creature more 

of spirit air, — 



40 ^be palace of IDisfon 

Kneels a woman in devotion, hallowing the 

pastoral scene ; 
Some far type of visioned beauty worshiping 

in lovely mien 

Part of earth, yet more of heaven, whom some 

rarer graces fold 
In their constant care protecting, than the man 

of coarser mould, — 

Kneels she in the noon's high shadow, lost in 

visions, rapt in dreams, 
Touched by glory beatific, — half an ecstasy 

she seems ! 

C Flowing over shoulders rounded, parted 

from a forehead fine, 
Modeled noble as the artist dreams of woman 

more divine, — 

Folds of Titian hair loose falling in abandon 

naught confines, 
Waving like the rippling water, — her sweet 

presence half enshrines. 



Devotion 4 1 

Through the parted leaves a sunbeam wander- 
ing falls upon her hair, 

Touching it with golden sunlight that soft 
glows, caressing, there. 

Till it shines half-lucent with the fire of ruddy 

gold within, 
Purpled deep to softened lustre with the ruby's 

glow akin. 

Soft it lies upon her tresses and, with radiance 

subdued. 
Tinges neck and cheek with crimson mingling 

with the flush of blood, 

That, concealed or faint revealed, suffuses her 

fair features low. 
Token sweet of tides of rapture that within 

her being glow. 

Ct Gentler fall on her the sorrows, voiceless 

longings and distress. 
That, upon her comrade kneeling, flood his 

heart with bitterness. 



42 Zbc palace of \Di0ion 

Low she bends her eyes in worship, while tri- 
umphant in her face, 

Where a smile half lingers softened, breaks a 
light of heavenly grace. 

C Veiled within her heart a Spirit breathes a 

promise distant cast 
Of redemption through her granted, that shall 

come to man, at last. 

On her rests the joy prophetic : that, from 

woman shall be born, 
Christ the Son of God, anointed to be balm 

for those who mourn. 

Herald of a brighter dawning that shall grow 

to perfect day ; 
And the Comforter, who, dying, bands upon 

the Grave shall lay. 

Conquer Death in Resurrection, rise victorious 

from the tomb, — 
Winning steadfast hope that, dying, man meets 

not a final doom. 



Devotion 43 

Ct Past the vision moves prophetic, fades the 

dream for history ; 
Leaves it some dim sense of music and of 

spirit minstrelsy. 

Over her, the woman kneeling, steals a new 

beatitude, 
Light of some annunciation on her softly 

seems to brood : 

Touch it is of all the wistful, tender love of 
womankind. 

All the grace of her devotion, her sure spirit- 
sense of mind, 

Wealth of pure affection and her ministry of 

tenderness 
Falling on life's strident harshness, calming it 

to loveliness. 

Ct Charms the artist means by halo, having 

else no skill to paint. 
Fall upon her past the pale self-righteousness 

of fancied saint : — 



44 XLbc palace of Dtsfon 

Burden of angelic mission, sweet as chorals 

from their choirs. 
Laying love in spirit meaning on the gross of 

man's desires; 

Earnest of eternal beauty that, like music, 
haunts the earth. 

Incarnation of the mystery, sense of far, celes- 
tial birth 

That in flowers and bird-song greet us, that in 

passing cloud is seen ; 
Spirit of the evening purple, passion of the 

noon's hot sheen ; 

Sweetness of the wind-blown murmurs, ravish- 
ment of form and grace : — 

All the wealth of spirit meaning that in earthly 
mould we trace. 

Rests upon the Woman kneeling, soft in halo 

lingers there. 
As she lifts her heart in worship, bowed in 

holiness of prayer ! 



III. NOBILITY 



III. NOBILITY 

IJAR along the lengthening passage, on its 
**• spacious, spreading vault, 

Art has laid its fair creations, blemished by no 
lack nor fault. 

Now a fresco pure as Raphael's throws the 

softened light in glow; 
Yonder scene of strength and grandeur speaks 

the art of Angelo. 

Clear are limned majestic fancies, which the 

heart had vaguely held. 
And had treasured through the years ; and 

how their hidden charms compelled, 

47 



48 ^be palace ot IDieion 

Yet not power nor skill awoke to make their 

grandeur outward known. 
€L Deep within the heart, how life is cold, 

there pleads in undertone 

Passion to create the beautiful that every age 
extols. 

What through years the passion bears in tute- 
lage of master souls, 

Here is laid with skill of chastened art : in 
beauty there unfold 

Mists of thought and gleams of fancy ; mem- 
ories of centuries old ; 

Pageantry and glorious visions, that, in sombre 

evening light 
When the press of the day is waning, picture 

forth their quaint delight : 

While the ancient knights and warriors move 
in vast procession slow, 

And through kindly hand of memory in height- 
ened splendors go, — 



moblUtlS 49 

Glittering in jeweled armor, flying banners 

gold-entwined, 
Heralded by martial trumpets that high thrill 

the passing wind. 

d. Through the distance break in misty gleam 

of ravishment, — 
That with warmth of life seems glowing, such 

as Courtois's hand had lent, — 

Forms that grace some fragrant woodland, 

lovely shapes that flee the sun, 
Gleaming white in sylvan shadows, coyly 

sweet and hardly won. 

Through the glorious painted vista moves the 

eye in kindling mood 
All the varied scenes among, the tireless hand 

of Art has wooed 

From the vague and passing fancy, and has 
brought to imagery 

Incarnate in splendid being, bright with haunt- 
ing witchery. 
D 



50 ^be palace of IDtsion 

C Far adown the spacious passage till it ends 

in sunlit court, 
Columns border it, majestic, and with grace 

the vault support : 

Lofty rising mark they portals spanned by arch 

and arabesque 
Opening on court and fountain, cool, inviting, 

picturesque ; 

Or, anon, on chambers noble, vast, where va- 
ried riches are 

Treasured for the soul's possession, won by 
toil from fields afar. 

C^ Low dividing from the passage, mark the 

columns paneled walls. 
While above them mellowed sunlight gleams 

on vault and capitals. 

Varied scenes adorn the panels, or they bear on 
azure field 

Golden wreaths the blue entwining ; fair de- 
sign of noble shield 



IRobilitis 5 1 

Wrought with symbols sphitual to show the 

soul in highest worth, 
Won by toil and earnest strivings, not by 

chance and favoring birth. 

C. If to show the Spirit noble, kindred to 

some glorious line, 
That nor boasts the blood of battle nor great 

riches from rapine ; 

But some line yet more illustrious than the 

titled birth bestows : 
That, by grace of God's endowments and by 

toil and strife, sure grows 

From the base and mean of earthliness to 

heights of air serene ; 
Gains the summit hard in winning, where all 

truth more clear is seen ; — 

Ancestry of priest and prophet, poets of the 

deathless strain ; 
Race of martyrs, saints, reformers, — those 

who served at Truth's high fane, 



52 XTbe palace of IDision 

Who some righteous word have spoken, heard 

undying in all time, 
Who have stood an Age opposing for a truth 

they held sublime; — 

Line of dreamer who in vision won the soul of 

Beauty's spell. 
Limned it forth in living colors, wrought the 

marble cold to tell 

Of the fire and deathless passion that forever 

urges on, 
Urges, still, each generation, till the Beautiful 

be won ! 

d. If to show the spirit noble, kindred to the 

great of soul. 
Lordly by God's gifts and sanction, stately and 

possessing, whole. 

Rank exalted, high and worthy, full as deeds 

have won estate ; — 
If to prove the worth of being, honoring the 

heart elate : 



inobilitis 53 

On the walls are crests armorial, blazoned 

some on emerald field, 
Gleaming some from depths of purple rich as 

Tyrian dyes might yield. 

Bear the walls heraldic symbols of the spirit's 
proudest quest : 

Golden-wreathed and jeweled from the emer- 
ald glows the spirit's crest ; 

Gleams it golden from the purple, with a clear, 

inspiring ray, 
Sacred with the light of empire higher than 

proud sceptres sway. 

€t Here the soul achieves all station, finds the 
courtliness it seeks ; 

Weaves a crest for its ambitions, that in splen- 
did guise bespeaks 

Lordliness in its possessor, all the regal state of 

man. 
Who within his heart a king is, ruling not on 

tribe or clan, 



54 tTbe palace of lUieion 

Race or nation ; but his kingdom is the realm 

his spirit knows, 
Broad as his own thought can measure, wide 

as his own spirit goes. 

On his crest there rests not symboled weapon 

boasting war and blood, 
Unicorn nor lion rampant, sword nor shield of 

fatal feud, — 

Childish signs of ruder peoples, signs of lord, 

and serf oppressed ; 
Tokens of the robber's prowess, knavery in 

splendor dressed. 

Here are traced in deepest tinctures, the spirit's 

highest heraldry. 
Azure, gold and crimson symbols, blent in 

splendid imagery. 



IV. NATURE 



IV. NATURE 

1) AST the symbols on the panels that attest 
'■' the worth of soul, 

That confirm its state and grandeur and its 
lineage extol, 

Other panels grace the passage : rich, adorned 

by master's hand. 
Blend they with the round above them, art 

with art in meaning grand. 

Spread in lavish treasure, onward till the splen- 
dor thrills the space 

Vast as some cathedral glooming, soft with all 
of visioned grace. 

57 



58 ^bc iPalacc of IDieion 

Colors deep with life and feeling gleam where 

mellowed sunlight falls, 
Till the real of pictured seeming vivid wakes 

upon the walls. 

CL Varied scenes adorn the panels, wrought 

by hand of varied art 
That has laid, with skill consummate, bare the 

beauty of the heart. 

Part they are of visions pictured, that with 
misty longing break 

Into sigh, where some deep woodland trem- 
bling cool in mirroring lake 

Yields the swift and fleeting fancy, shows 

some vale in laughing air, 
Beautiful beyond earth's being, and than 

Tempe yet more fair. 

Part they are of blended image wrought from 

pleasing memories 
That possess the spirit dreaming, mingling in 

its reveries. 



mature 5 9 

Ct Fair outspreads a quiet valley distant 
walled by gentle hills 

Lying in caressing sunshine, dimmed by mel- 
lowing haze that fills 

Wide the space with golden shimmer, airy- 
thin and softening 

Till the landscape lies in splendor more of 
dream than paints the spring. 

Peaceful winds a narrow river on whose banks 

great willows grow, 
Leaf and branch enchanting pictured, — mists 

of trees as once Corot 

Painted in idyllic landscapes, — strong of trunk 

and graceful limbed, 
Crowned with foliage tender, wistful, all its 

harshness softly dimmed. 

More of dreams than earth the landscape, like 

some perfect chord and low. 
Passing human utterance sweet and sweeter 

than the breezes blow : 



60 ^be iPalacc of Diston 

Scene of some Arcadian region, where the pow- 
ers of Nature lie 

But to bless with growth and nurture, and to 
grace with friendly sky ; 

Region where the perfect seeming grows into 

reality 
Showing thought of God in beauty, deep as 

His eternity. 

€L Opposite, the mellowed radiance lights a 

scene of sylvan theme : 
Not of earth the forest glimmers with a faintly 

struggling gleam ; 

For the sun scarce breaks the fastness warded 

deep with sturdy trunk 
Arched with limb thick spread with foliage, 

that of kindly showers has drunk ; 

Growing depths of thick-wove leafage pierced 

with stray and wandering rifts, 
Where there falls a shaft of sunlight that in 

gleaming splendor drifts. 



Ulatute 6 1 

On the sward of grass and mosses bright is set 

the woodland flower 
Bearing bloom of blue and purple ; tokens coy 

of secret bower 

That the sun in passion enters, bloom here 

flowers of burning red, 
Flames, that from the green upspringing, 

through the dusk mild radiance shed. 

Star-like shine they in the glooming, sparkling 

like some magian gems 
Hung by sportive elf or fairy on the floweret's 

nodding stems. 

C Purpled are the trunks and branches with 
the woodland glooms that fell, 

From the lights the thick boughs passing, into 
weird and solemn spell ; 

Green are leaf and grass with livid tints like 

emerald glistening, 
As through them was wildly coursing wine 

of an unfading spring. 



62 XTbc palace of msion 

CL Stately seems the forest olden, bower where 

noble spirits pass, 
Moving through the air with music, scarcely 

touching flower and grass ; 

Wood it is of visioned seeming, filled with no 

annoy nor harm, 
Where the wistful peace of shadows trembles 

but at its own charm. 

C Here in noontide's fervid splendor gleams 

the sunset's radiant chord. 
Tints that thrill like anthem sounding, tones 

of light in full accord. 

Here, in light of glorious seeming, lies the 

heart's deep loveliness, 
Set in forest grand and storied, purpled depths 

of wilderness 

Such as hand of Diaz painted, drawing clear 

his vision fine, 
Spite of jeer, as his own spirit caught the 

passing dream divine ; — 



Ulatuce 63 

Painted depths of woodland sombre, shot with 

some fierce gilded ray 
That, from rift in storm-cloud falling lurid on 

the darkened day, 

Marks the moment when on Nature, solemn, 

grand, an awful pause 
Dark forebodes the tempest's fury and the burst 

of its wild laws : — 

Painted woodland more of seeming than the 

depths of forest shade, 
More of dreams and sombre fancy than is seen 

through wildest glade ; 

Sombre dreams, yet deeply thrilling with the 

pain of some far hope ; 
Fairer they than storied Arden, or the charms 

of fabled slope. 



V. AFFLICTION 



V. AFFLICTION 

Passing scenes of sylvan fancies, that a 
■^ vivid art has won, 

Where the heart of man with Nature beats in 
tranquil unison, — 

Wide a panel spreads a picture feigning hour 

of light subdued, 
When the evening softness gathers, and the 

shadows lightly brood. 

Blue the sky of this far landscape, azure pass- 
ing into gray 

On a level, dim horizon, that in distance fades 
away, 

67 



68 Zbc ipalace ot Dision 

Blending earth and sky together in a shimmer- 
ing veil of haze. 

Wide the landscape stretches bleakly, desert 
waste of sands that blaze 

Lurid fierce in glow of noontide, where no 

tree nor flush of green ; 
Fronded palm nor spread of verdure pleasant 

to the eye is seen : 

Naught but desert vast is pictured, where the 

step of humankind 
Falls but in some distant memory, like an echo 

to remind 

Each spent year of seasons olden, when the 

waste a garden spread 
Fair as Eden, green and blooming, and with 

living waters fed. 

Ct On the scene of desolation Memory lays 

enkindling breath, 
And there lives its past with all the joyous 

charm it lost in death. 



Bmiction 69 

Soft reposing in the shadows lingering cool 

where noble trees 
Lifted frond and branch toward heaven, toying 

with the languorous breeze, — 

Temples stood amid the verdure, roof and tree 
blent in relief; 

Peak with crown of branches mingling, weath- 
ered bronze with green of leaf. 

€L, Through the rifts of verdure gleaming 
with the charm of quick surprise. 

Marble white the temples glisten, high their 
noble columns rise, 

Carven with a woodland garland, lilies clasped 
with trembling vine. 

Airy reeds and iris flowering, held with wind- 
ing columbine. 

Graceful as the shafts of palm trees that a 
passing wind might sway, 

Bowing them as trees are bended, lift the tem- 
ples, light as they. 



70 tTbe palace of Dision 

Sculptured shafts, that through the branches 
seem with clustering trees a part, — 

Part with woodland beauty fashioned, Nature 
blent with human art. 

Shrines are here before whose altars low the 

soul in worship bows, 
And in awe of the Eternal breathes its ardent, 

trembling vows. 

Here it lifts its aspiration, pleading it may 

realize 
All the sweet, exalted longing that it brings for 

sacrifice ; 

That, how dim and vague their leading, and 

how high their earnest dwells, 
Are the creed of youth's devotion. Here the 

pleaded yearning swells, 

Breath of incense soft aspiring toward the 

Holy, Beautiful; 
And the soul thrilled with its craving, in its 

worship dutiful. 



Bmiction 71 

Yields its God, in spirit unction through its 

softened, mystic mood, 
Through its tender, nameless strivings, through 

a Self dim understood, — 

Imaged beauty of His spirit, attribute of His 

own soul 
That He breathes into His creatures. His own 

likeness to extol ! 

C Soft the groves are with a Presence, and 

one temple leads the rest ; 
Shrine it is the heart in homage seeks in pained, 

impassioned quest. 

Very birds that wing the branches garlanding 

the sacred fane. 
Sing in sweet, melodious measure, pouring out 

their hearts in strain 

Soft and melting as the bulbul lays upon the 

moonlit air 
Heavy with the dews of fragrance. Softer 

green the leaves are there ; 



72 ^be ipalace ot melon 

Sweeter blow the wandering breezes breaking 

into melodies, 
Like a harp aeolian singing, breathing joy 

among the trees. 

He who worships here knows longing, pain 

that sweeter is than joy ; 
Fevers of unrest consume him, burn the heart 

yet not destroy ; 

Fancies flit across the shadows, tender yet with 

anguish filled ; 
While from joy the heart quick turning, with 

an unknown dread is thrilled. 

€t Fane of anguish is the temple, yet a shrine 
of ecstasy, 

Where despair and bliss may mingle in enrap- 
tured litany. 

Here a Presence fair and lovely passes through 
the air serene. 

And the trees break into singing as her come- 
liness is seen : 



^miction 73 

Fills it all the columned temple till the mar- 
bles softly glow ; 

Thrills it through the verdant shadows till they 
waver to and fro, 

As in dance of joy they circled ; and the air 
grows mist of gold 

Melting into lambent treasure, while the flow- 
ers more gay unfold. 

Nature owns the shrine and homage, whole 

partakes its joy and bliss, 
Rapture and the thrilling passion which the 

later years dismiss : 

For the Soul of Love is passing and the earth 
breaks into May ; 

Hers the temple is and worship, and the fra- 
grant, golden day ! 

He who worships in the temple, spellbound in 
the mystic grove, 

Seeks the haunting form of rapture that pos- 
sesses him with love ; 



74 ^be iPalace of IDision 

Seeks the One, who through the twilight bends 

on him bewitching eyes, 
Showing veiled a form that kindles dreams and 

longings into sighs ; 

Seeks the soul his own completing, who with 

guardian love may bless 
Strife of his endeavor, and his quest for truth 

and perfectness. 

C Here the soul had dreamed enduring green 
would wave the fronded plain ; 

Dreamed the gleaming of the temple and the 
worship at the fane, 

With the rapture and the beauty, would the 

years of life abide. 
As the world were meant for dreaming till all 

hope be satisfied. 

C Swift upon a scene so lovely, demon-like, 

Destruction came ; 
Gave it to the sword and whirlwind, wrapped 

its temples in the flame ; 



^miction 75 

Gave its pleasant groves an offering to the 

Fire's insatiate lust : — 
On the verdant plain simooms fell withering 

flowers and grass to dust ; 

Cast on them from desert places swirling 

sands, that buried deep 
Ruined fane and corse who worshiped, laid in 

Time's unbroken sleep ! 

€L. Slowly through the years there drifted yel- 
low sands that bleaching lay, 

Hiding death, themselves sepulchral with the 
dust of perished clay ; 

Slowly through the years that gathered, every 

trace of Love's demesne, — 
Murmuring fountains, shrines and temples, 

fronded groves and meadows green, — 

Passed from sight into oblivion and became 

sad memories, 
Burden of some far-spent rapture, dirge that 

sounds in passing breeze ; 



76 ^be palace of IDieion 

Pain that in the moonlight's silver, sweet ca- 
ressing sheen is laid, 

Bodings of some distant sorrow that the fairest 
scenes invade; — 

Passed into the strange, sad meanings, passed 

into the mystery 
God in wisdom lays upon us, deep as His 

eternity ! 

C Choked are now the pleasant fountains, 
dried the sparkling streams that fed 

Grove and meadow in their verdure ; and the 
land is one where dead. 

Buried deep, a Past lies sleeping, and the bar- 
ren sands drift on, 

And Remorse is mute for vanished loveliness 
and splendors gone ! 

C^ Blue the sky of this far landscape broods, 

now, barren over death ; 
From its level, far horizon blows no more a 

cooling breath, 



Bmtctlon 77 

Wafts no breeze from fragrant meadows ; 
sweeps now but the heated blast 

Of simoom and blinding whirlwind ; Desola- 
tion great and vast 

Rests upon the desert prospect ; Loneliness 

and Silence keep, 
Brooding sad, their watch unending ; for the 

thrill of life so deep 

It could last but few bright seasons, weary- 
years must Sorrow rest 

Silent in the desert places, once with joyous 
verdure dressed. 

Ct In the power of quickened vision, in the 

revery of grief 
For the lost, exalted joyance fleeting as the 

day and brief. 

Lays the soul upon the panel limned with 

waste of desert sky 
Bending blue on desolation, — ruined space of 

joys gone by, — 



78 XTbe palace of IDision 

Wide the picture of its sadness, symbol of its 

history, 
Image of the love and sorrow sacred held in 

memory. 

Far the landscape stretches dreary, now a soli- 
tude as vast 

As the sands on Theban ruins burying a storied 
past; 

Where, from wreck of columned temple, one 

scathed shaft yet rises high, 
As it held the watch of empire for a Kingdom 

long passed by. 

Monuments they stand of conquest, of a glory 

lost afar. 
Of the love and hope of nations perished in 

the greed of war. 

€L, Sadly as in Th^San desert, but not here 

for pomp and pride, 
Wealth and power of ancient peoples buried 

by forgotten tide, 



Btmctton 7 9 

For the hate and greed and envy overthrown 

some long ago, — 
Lifts the mute, stark sign of sorrow, desolation 

and of woe ! 

Here, a lonely shaft that rises, marks the treas- 
ured temple's seat. 

That once held life's sweetest dreaming and 
with rapture was replete : 

Here, a Presence passed with music; breeze 

and birds hailed it with song ; 
While the heart pledged pure devotion, that 

should last enduring strong. 

Yet the Presence seems to linger, an ethereal 

wraith of light. 
Resting sadly sweet above it ; lovely passing 

human sight. 

Fair beyond earth's ruder dreaming is her spirit 

form of grace, 
Grown diviner through the sorrow that befell 

her templed place ! 



80 ^l>c palace of \t)i6ion 

CL From the bliss that turned to anguish, from 

the rapture lost in death, 
God has sent a finer Essence, moulded it and 

given it breath. 

Till a Soul of spirit beauty lingers where its 

worship rose, 
And, in sweetest benediction, its devotion still 

bestows. 

€t Lives it, there, a soul supernal, loveliness 

more beautified. 
Wistful with a charm unfading, constant 

through life's varying tide : 

Lovelier than in carnal being, still the spirit 

form of love 
Draws the heart with power eternal ; beautiful, 

it lives above 

All the gross and crude of earth-life, all the 

vain that veils the truth, 
All the mists that dimmed its morning; and 

abides in charm of youth : 



Bmiction 81 

In a realm of full perfection, grows it fairer 

with the years, 
Grows it sweeter with the seasons, pure, 

diviner through our tears ! 



VI. INCARNATION 



VI. INCARNATION 

/^N, athwart the passage gleams a burst of 

mellowed light, 
Finer than the mingled glow the pavement 
flings on chrysolite 

Bearing firm the carven shafts of portals, that 

imposing stand 
Guarding with a silent splendor chambers 

opening vast and grand. 

Glows the light with some far meaning, some 

strange semblance in its rays, 
Casting wide a mystic token, where a finer 

essence plays, 

85 



86 Zbc ipalace ot Dtsion 

Thrilling deep with expectation that invites 

exalted mood ; 
Calling to some noble vision that with mystery 

seems to brood. 

C. Through a columned portal falls athwart 

a nave the radiance bright, 
That, a splendor soft diffusing, floods the 

chamber's noble height. 

Strains it through high arching windows, where 
the fretted, opal glass 

Mingles fervid light of noontide with the ten- 
der sheen from grass, 

And the golden green of shadows lit through 

lucent films of leaves. 
Lays the crystal fret on sunlight, Nature's 

prismal art that weaves, 

Touching soft like passing fancy, spell of flow- 
ers and sward and tree. 

Charm of flashing wing and plumage, myriad 
beauties lavished free. — 



Incarnation 8 7 

Veiled within the mingling radiance, in the 

shadows dim disguised, 
Wavers past the vision some vague Beautiful 

unrealized. 

Ct Reverently upon the portal of the chamber 

stays the soul. 
As it stood upon the threshold of a temple, 

where unroll, 

Clear before the eyes enraptured, that high 

vision which the heart 
Strives to grasp through mist and shadow, with 

the feeble strife of art : 

Secret of the truth and beauty, it dim sees on 
Nature lie ; 

Wonder and the mystery blending of a mean- 
ing vast and high 

Wrapped in ecstasy of human form, that 

moulds the plastic clay. 
Till from dust a perfect beauty clothes the 

soul in fair array 



88 ^be iPalace ot IDision 

More divine than thought can fashion, that in 

passing wraith conceals 
Very image of its Maker, yet Himself in part 

reveals. — 

Where unroll in carnal symbols all the mean- 
ing faltering told. 

All the holiness of beauty, He has stamped on 
human mould. 

C For the chamber is a temple dedicate to 

thought divine 
God has stamped on human fashion, breathed 

in every mobile line, 

Changing curve and facile feature, which in- 
carnate to admire 

Is but worship, who may scorn them for the 
gross of low desire, 

Praising life austere and formal ; as the crea- 
ture were more wise. 

Holier, purer than his Maker, whom he 
blindly so denies. 



Uncarnation 89 

Ct Spacious is the noble chamber, while upon 

its paneled walls, 
On the dome of vaulted ceiling and the frieze, 

the light that falls 

Shows no treasures Art has fashioned ; but the 

chastened hue and tone, 
Tint and color that adorn it, blend in softly 

glowing zone. 

That enfolds a noble vision art and toil have 
glorious wrought, — 

Splendor held in softened gleaming, of the ut- 
most reach of thought. 

C Fair reveals the light its burden, as some 

chords majestic, low, 
Sound their tones in concord blending, that in 

measured cadence flow, 

Laying on the air sonorous wave on wave of 

harmony, 
Like the bass of organ sounding ; while there 

burst in melody, 



90 XLbc palace of melon 

Rising clear in treble measures, phrase on 

phrase, until the theme 
Utters all the charm and meaning of the sweet 

melodic dream. 

"CI, On the walls, which from the passage low 

divide the chambered space, 
Tapestries of tone accordant hang with draping 

folds of grace. 

Forming two recesses which the lengthening 

shadows faintly mould 
Into deeper rounded seeming, softening each 

olive fold. 

Pedestals of emerald marble veined as Nature 

mingles tone, 
Blending colored wave with stream of opal 

into treasured stone. 

Stand within each shadowed recess ; while 
upon the polished sheen 

Wreathes of mossy gold are fashioned, blend- 
ing with the marble's green. 



Incarnation 9 1 

Here, in flood of mellowed radiance, rising on 

the scene supreme 
From their pedestals of emerald, breaks the 

light on forms that seem 

Beings sprung from birth supernal, to the soul 
in quick surprise 

At the beautiful creations human in their per- 
fect guise. 

€L Like some fleeting strains of fancy, haunt- 
ing, echoing dreamily, 

Sweet with melody unsymboled, singing in 
some airy key, 

When the theme of their high sounding clear 

is heard in perfect song. 
Sing their cadence in its measures and their 

strains the theme prolong ; 

Like a thought that, hasting, passes veiling 

half some beauty rare. 
Lovelier for its misty semblance hinting it 

beyond compare. 



92 Zbc palace of IPlsfon 

Finds its being in the numbers that a poet 

frames in stress 
Of the song his own heart utters burdened 

with its loveliness : 

Gleaming white the marble statues nobly rise 

upon the eyes, 
That behold in burst of vision beings which 

immortalize 

Beauty's passing wraith supernal ; and the eyes 
enraptured see 

Symbols of Art's high creation wrought to no- 
blest majesty, 

Regal beyond earthly crowning ; that, endur- 
ing for all time, 

Speak in poise of life's full seeming all the 
thought we hold sublime, 

Lift the faltering human fashion into forms of 

living grace, 
And, the Beautiful exalted, yield, at last, the 

perfect race. 



Incarnation 93 

CL Full incarnate in the marbles, bodied forth 

by art's trained hand 
From the vision genius kindles, sees the soul 

before it stand, 

Here revealed in high perfection simple in 

its sacredness. 
Touch and hint of fair proportions Nature lays 

in sweet caress 

On the human form she fashions : yet, as were 

the task too fine. 
Or her bounty too high treasure, mingles with 

the thought divine 

Cruder mould and harsher pattern, leaving ever 

incomplete 
Her fair promise, that transports us from the 

hint to shape replete 

With all comeliness and beauty, — lacking 

naught, in nothing gross. 
Every touch in justest measure, pure, refined 

from taint of dross. 



94 tTbe palace of IDiaion 

C, By the master's task and toiling, stands the 

dream in form expressed, 
Which in glow of some far passion slowly 

dawned in guise and dressed 

Rapture of its sweet conception in the carnal 

mould that reigns 
Type supreme in world of beauty, and some 

high creation feigns. 

C Forms they are that whole embody — mo- 
tionless in eloquence 

Of the flush and tide of being — from the hint 
of grosser sense, 

What the spirit's finer vision sees transcend the 
earthly mask, 

Seeking for the real of symbols through un- 
daunted, baffled task. 

Here the perfect form incarnate passes glimpse 

of round and curve 
Seen in thousand fleeting shadows, that, in 

broken image serve, 



Incarnation 9 5 

But to point the glorious radiance of a perfect 

loveliness. 
Fleeting hints from thousand faltering forms 

that dimly, vague express 

Truth of some diviner beauties that, unstaying 

as they passed, 
Promised through their misty image dawn of 

the ideal, at last, — 

Here, are shaped in curve and moulding, line 
and fashion, till the stone. 

In the pause of perfect being, makes the ut- 
most beauty known. 

G, And the vision falls like music ; through 

its measures weaves the song 
Whose fair theme of haunting sweetness, its 

own harmonies prolong : 

And, like some fair revery or image of forgot- 
ten days. 

That once smote the chords of heart to sing 
Love's roundelays, 



96 Zhc iPalace of \Df6ion 

Through the vision breaks the real of dreams 
and veiled, enchanting thought, 

As it wakes from misty seeming, the ideal the 
soul had sought. 

€t Sundered far by tide and nation are the 

forms that memory 
Here has garnered, fitly mating beings, who, in 

majesty, 

Grace and beauty far surpassing shapes of 

halting, cruder mould. 
Are the primal man and woman, as they 

moved through Eden old. 



VII. WISDOM 



VII. WISDOM 

TN the charm of mellowed sunlight, gleams 

the lucent marble low 
With the sembled flush of life diffused, as by 
some crimsoned flow ; 

Through the spell of gleam and shadow, soft 
is borne upon the view 

Presence of a form transcendent, that, in sym- 
bol carven true. 

Shows the perfect man and fashion of the im- 
age God has wrought 

Out of dust, and called to being in the splen- 
dor of his thought. 
99 



100 ^be IPalace ot IDision 

C Noble is the brow, commanding ; high the 

forehead rises pure, 
Lofty, wide, the fitting symbol of the Mind it 

shelters sure, 

That, through instrument bewildering in its 

mazes intricate. 
Baffling human lore and searching, — matter 

shaped for soul's estate, — 

Works upon the world what Spirit wills from 

its unknown domain ; 
Half creator at its pleasure, half in bond to 

sense and pain. 

€t Finely carven are the features, mobile to 

the secret mood. 
That faint plays upon the spirit : they are 

guise to habitude, 

Passing thought and kindled fancy ; like a mir- 
ror they present 

In the flash of quick expression, undistorted, 
that intent 



mtsDom 1 1 

Which the soul toward those beholding longs 
to break in message plain, 

From the depths of being image, and in meas- 
ure full attain ; 

Till the fancy, thought, emotion, which in 

vivid power it feels. 
Full is seen in living image that the real in 

whole reveals. 

C Under spell of lovely shape, that Melos 

yielded from her past. 
Carved, perchance, by hand of lover, whose 

deep passion overcast 

Earthly mould of fault and blemish with the 

glamour love supplies. 
Knowing not his rapture fashioned form that 

should immortalize 

That high dream of noble Woman, which the 

ardent heart of man 
Beating ever to the vision, since the spell of 

love began, 



102 ^be palace ot IDieion 

Dreams anew in each rapt lover ; knowing not 

his art bestowed 
Union of a perfect body with the purest soul 

endowed ; — 

€t Under spell of Phidian marbles, that in 

glorious numbers rose 
Through their round of full perfection, ever 

nobler to disclose 

Depths of mystic human beauty, Nature shows 

to eyes endued 
To behold her charms supernal, which the 

grosser sight elude. 

That, for gain of present praising, an abiding 
art eschews 

For some warped and passing fancy that no vi- 
tal breath imbues; — 

Ct Under charm of classic sculpture from the 

golden art of Greece, 
Type and pattern for all ages, as it symboled 

fruitful peace 



TWlis&om 103 

And the splendor of her victories in the winged 

Nike poised, 
Like a regnant spirit calm above the tumult 

wildly noised ; — 

€L In the glow of that far glory, Greece had 

wrought upon the frieze 
Crowning her famed Parthenon with galaxy of 

deities 

And her fabled heroes ; carven by the art she 

fostered, till 
It attained an ideal beauty, calm, impressive, 

lingering still 

All-compelling as its conquest fell upon that 

vanished race ; — 
Ct In the toils of that enchantment, enervating 

in embrace ; 

Whose sad, ruined splendors hold their renais- 
sance in flush of youth. 

Cherished by an erring zeal which backward 
reads the ages' truth : — 



104 Zbc palace of Vision 

Was this form immortal wrought and carved 

in later age by hand 
Moved by genius high as Nature granted to 

that favored land, 

Deifying sense and passion ; but whose art 

lacked power to mate 
Body with the soul in full expression, for its 

ultimate. 

d. Held by classic beauty in its spell, Thor- 

valdsen carved the dream. 
Which, in chambers of the vision, Memory 

clothes with subtle gleam. 

That endows the classic roundness with the 

life, whose glorious whole, 
Lifts the noble human fashion into temple for 

the soul. 

Ct Not the stature of the giant, does the mar- 
ble celebrate ; 

Brute with other brutes contending, who sur- 
vives to dominate 



•QfiltsDom 105 

Land and sea with foes insidious, which a 

ceaseless conflict wage, 
Like the strife of savage creatures in some 

dark, remoter age : 

Nor the bulk of gladiator; for the boaster 

panoplied 
For the battle with his fellows, is forgotten 

with his deed. 

d Here is man, not statue carven to entice 

the passing throng. 
Who from base ideals flutter admiration for 

the strong : 

Here, man shares not with the ox the strength 

of dumb, obedient toil ; 
As the beast were shape divine for world of 

slavish brawn and moil ! 

C. Let the strength of man be boasted, Nature 

mocks it with her powers : 
Puny is his best endeavor ; and his works a 

year devours. 



106 XTbe palace Of iDlBion 

Nature owns man lord and master, not by 

pitting force with force ; 
Nor, by might of brute endeavor, does she 

yield established course. 

C, Nature like a queenly lover, deep enam- 
oured of the man. 

Longs to yield herself unto him : to dissolve 
the brutal ban. 

Lifts she him to regal station ; and, that he 

may be her lord, 
Crowns him with the mind immortal, godlike 

in divine accord. 

Regal, now, she yields her being, ardent meets 

his eagerness, 
As he woos her secret treasures with a lover's 

fond address. 

€t He, who strength to force opposes, must 

be slave to constant toil ; 
Like he gives for like begrudging, — like for 

like in endless coil. 



•QCligDom 107 

By his thought man wields a sceptre, mighty 

as his crown of mind ; 
Guides he force by intellect, and powers by 

mightier are confined. 

Clothed with intellect, he plies the subtle 

lightning for his need ; 
Learns the bounds of every force that may 

work out his will to deed ; 

Spans the stream with graceful arch, or plants, 

affronting hill and sky. 
Geometric web with filaments of steel, which 

bears on high. 

Far above the cafion's foaming depths, an epic 

of his thought, 
Which but lacks the human touch to be divine 

as Homer wrought. 

Ct Fashioned like a god, the statue symboling 

Apollo's form, 
Graceful stands with noble presence, type of 

beauty, and the norm 



108 KTbc ipalace ot \Di6ion 

Which attests the man impressive, — height 

and mien in unity 
Full conforming, where reposes conscious 

power and majesty. 

On its form a play of shadows breathes in 

classic round the tide. 
Flush and thrill of life's real being ; rests there 

touch of conscious pride, 

Nature gives with health and vigor; there to 

show her meaning high. 
Limbs and body are full moulded till the 

sleeping muscles lie 

Faint revealed ; yet eloquent with latent power 

and energy, 
That, on instant, may awaken swift to work 

with certainty 

Strong behests of thought commanding, and 

with nice precision press 
To obey the instant call of sense alert with 

consciousness. 



TimtsDom 109 

Ct Nature here has wrought the shaping full 

and free to her design, 
Which eschews the coarse and beastly for a 

moulding more divine. 

Clothes she tendon, bone and sinew with abid- 
ing touch of grace ; 

Fashioning its rugged harshness, moulds she 
every part to trace 

Clear the thought of utmost beauty, which 

pervades her varied guise ; 
While she makes her chief creation with all 

being harmonize. 

d. Trunk and limb are not contorted with the 

knotted muscle tense, 
Hard with strenuous labor; as, by strength 

and violence, 

Man had won his regal station : for the 

warped, distorted frame, 
Deeply seamed by coarse endeavor, speaks not 

majesty, nor fame 



1 1 Zbc palace of melon 

Of achievement high and noble from devel- 
oped powers innate ; 

But proclaims, that brute dominion prostitutes 
man's high estate, 

Making man machine for labor, or an engine 
framed for strife ; 

Losing so in toil and conflict what should no- 
bly crown his life. 

Ct Vain is art that begs expression for the 

thought it holds of strength ! 
For its mould of form mistaken lays a high 

ideal, at length. 

In the dust of base conceptions, and exalts 

deformity 
For the mask of powers diviner and man's 

nobler sovereignty. 

C On the form beheld in vision, rests the 

the touch the Infinite 
Lays upon his earthly image, making man in 

sovereign right 



MtsDom 1 1 1 

Lord of earth and all its fullness ; master of 

the powers that hide 
Deep in its mysterious fashion ; ruler of an 

empire wide, 

Where he holds exalted station, not by right 

of arm alone, 
But by Intellect and Spirit which have made 

all things his own. 



VIII. TENDERNESS 



VIII. TENDERNESS 

A S it fell in revelation, that might guide the 
grosser sight 
To behold the finer meaning laid in form so 
exquisite : 

Softer dwells the mellowed radiance, as it 

joyed to linger there. 
Captive held in sweet enchantment, owning 

this beyond compare ; 

Softer lies the play of shadows, as it would by 

fond caress. 
Lead the vision to attest the being's perfect 

loveliness. 

115 



116 Zbc ipalacc ot IDision 

CL Art here offers pledge and witness of the 

skill and mastery 
Won in present age, that loudly boasts its high 

supremacy 

Over mind and matter. In this age, — when 

great achievements gained 
Prompt more daring enterprise, and every 

power is utmost strained ; 

When, in conquest scarcely won, there springs 
a new-discovered need, 

That, inciting fresh endeavor, spurs a still insa- 
tiate greed : — 

Art has seen the finer meanings, that in some 

dim sense pervade 
All the restless search and striving, which, 

conceived for gain and trade. 

Cradled in its selfishness, is yet with latent 

good innate. 
Ever guiding all endeavor toward a glorious 

ultimate. 



^cnDcrnes5 117 

Art has felt the viewless presence of a spirit in 

the age, 
Leading man more surely into glory of the 

heritage, 

Nature waits to full possess him : when he 

yields the canons wrought 
From the mists of his conceptions, which, in 

narrowness of thought. 

Vainly seek to circumscribe the beautiful in 

every guise ; 
And accepts in fullest measure Nature's 

beauty, as it lies 

Sweet revealed in all her being ; and shall seek 

for ideal pure 
From the thought divine, she partial shows in 

her investiture. 

d. Art here owns, the wistful beauty Greece 
achieved with noble grace. 

Binding with its fair enchantments each suc- 
cessive age and race, 



118 Zbc IPalace ot Dision 

Is but partial glimpse supernal and attainment 

won in youth 
Of endeavor, that would gain in its own 

strength the perfect truth. 

d. Sweetly stands revealed a nobler form, by 

art of Ruckstuhl won. 
Owning Nature's moulded loveliness. From 

faltering shapes begun, — 

Where, in broken line and wavering curve, 

there yet enchantment lies, 
Symboling the perfect beauty Nature still in 

most denies, — 

It reveals the utmost comeliness. In every 

feature speaks 
Vision realized, which from the partial form 

untiring seeks 

Perfect fashion : and a splendor of the beauti- 
ful soft falls 

Deep with harmony and filled with rapture, 
that the heart enthralls. 



Zcnt>cxnc6e 1 1 9 

Owning Nature ultimate ; that naught beyond 

her elements 
Knows the human vision ; naught beyond her 

glorious, high intents, 

Can the thought devise from its own nothing- 
ness : these charms proclaim, 

That, which God hath formed, is lovelier than 
the human thought can frame. 

€L Very queen of womankind, — in stature 

that the more commands 
Regal homage, — in her uncrowned majesty, 

the statue stands 

Rapt in mood of contemplation, that the close 

of passing day 
Brings with mystic hour of evening. Far the 

kindled fancies stray 

From the world of wearied knowledge, seeking 

realm, where wistful lies 
Utmost tenderness and sweetest love, the 

harsher day denies : 



12 vTbe palace of melon 

And the vision grown more spiritual, as things 

of sense depart, 
Sees beyond the world denying aspirations of 

the heart, 

Very realm the longings craved : where love in 

sweetest measure dwells, — 
Passing slow fulfillment of its treasured 

dawn, — and bright expels 

Pain of bald attainment ; where in kindled 

light the hopes repressed, 
Overcast with dust of earthliness, arise in 

splendor dressed, — 

Grown more radiant fair for half-relinquish- 

ment, — until they seem 
Strong with conquering strength to win the 

recompense of treasured dream. 

d. Nor upon the semblance rests the sicklied 

light repression gives : 
Seeking from all sense relinquished and 

despised, the state that lives 



^cnoemesa 1 2 1 

Feebly in the body ; that it, haply, gain what 

it believes 
Holier is and purer, than the life accepting 

flesh achieves. 

But there dwells upon it — passing halo of the 

saint — the clear, 
Calm, majestic glory of humanity : which 

pleads no fear. 

That the Spirit may not wing its utmost flight 

for clog of flesh ; 
As the carnal raiment sorely pinioned soul in 

earthly mesh ! 

From it falls the nobler radiance : for the 

body's balanced play, — 
Sense and soul in full fruition, seeking joyous 

to obey 

Every prompting call of Nature, God has laid 

in mystic plan. 
Glorifying life despised of beast by crowning it 

in man, — 



1 2 2 ^be {palace of IDision 

Yields the perfect human being : where the 

carnal strains but blend 
Full and sweet with tones of spirit; and the 

mingled chords transcend, 

Thrilled with deepened harmonies, the feebler 
notes they separate raise. — 

Soul and sense in fullest utterance is the no- 
blest hymn of praise ! 

Through the strains of Nature's gladness, sings 
it sweet of gracious plan, 

Murmured low from humblest being into per- 
fect theme in man. 

€L To the vision, as it lingers, what was mar- 
ble but before, 

Cold as deep Carrara's seams, where once it 
lay in precious store. 

Glows now with the flush of life ; a genial 

tide seems mantling there, 
Tinging marble with its hidden stream ; and 

all the being fair 



TTenDeniess 123 

Seems but stayed in some rapt moment, — held 
in sweet suspense, which glows 

With the gladness that the tide of an abound- 
ing life bestows. 

d. On the features dwells the touch indelible 

of soul, which holds 
Body wrought in such perfection instrument 

that part enfolds 

Its own essence, — binding that, which knows 
nor time nor narrowing bounds. 

With habiliments of law and matter to fulfill 
the rounds, 

Hasting years impose within that confined 

space, insensate earth 
Lays for heritage in realm of law that gave the 

body birth; — 

While unthralled its spirit dwells in native 

freedom, and is fain 
Through the thought to range in instant sweep 

throughout the wide domain. 



124 ^be palace ot Vision 

Fancy knows in far, expansive bounds. Upon 

the face is seal, 
Which a destiny sublime has set in attributes, 

that clear reveal 

What is noble, high and pure : in earthliness 

the better part. 
Time nor chance may take away ; that shall 

instill within the heart 

Fortitude to mould unhappy fate to some fine, 

noble ends ; 
Laying soft upon the charms of beauty, spirit 

that its charms transcends. 

Symboling life the statue seems but some fair 

breath in lovely pause ; 
As a spell of soft enchantment in abeyance 

held the laws, 

Prone to break the charms with disallusion 

swift. In poise it stands 
Shaped to human symmetry so exquisite by 

loving hands. 



n:enDernes5 12 5 

That the vision falters, if the fair creation, 
feigning stone, 

Be some faultless woman to similitude of mar- 
ble grown, 

Held in trance of her own loveliness : or it be 

work of art. 
Where the hands, committed to the rapture 

which possessed the heart. 

Chiseled nobly fine, until the glow of its own 
vision breathed 

Life upon the task of hands ; and, while creat- 
ing form, bequeathed 

Soul and spirit : till, infused, the marble took 

on warmth of flesh, 
d. As suffused with conscious pride of perfect 

form, the statue fresh. 

Calmly sweet, as risen from healthy slumbers, 

stays in winning poise 
Eloquent of supple, matchless grace ; and 

owns the blushing joys 



126 XTbe palace of IDision 

Perfect comeliness instills. The charm of 

neck fine moulded seems 
But in greater loveliness of shoulders veiled : 

where chastely gleams 

Touch of curve, that instant thralls the heart 

with rapture far, 
Held beyond our ken and sweeter than our 

fancies are ; 

Which awakes such form enchanting, where 
so high perfections rise, 

The insatiate thirst for beauty, its sweet rapt- 
ure satisfies. 

d. As the artist far had searched through clas- 
sic shapes and visions fair 

For the utmost loveliness ; and from his barren 
toil's despair 

Had in Nature sought, and found, at last, an 

incarnation pure : 
Lovely in its simple human guise, the bosom's 

mould mature, — 



Zcn^cxncsB 12 7 

Art not more can beautify how it exalts its 

feebler line, — 
Shows just Nature's fashion exquisite and 

touch surpassing fine ; 

As the very grace and spirit of the Beautiful 

had wrought 
To reveal, here, sweetest beauty, in a world 

with beauty fraught. 

For where Nature carves and sculptures charms 

with rapture so replete. 
Art in high endeavor can but own her work 

for ideal sweet, 

Tender, pure and lovely ; and forsake its can- 
ons manifold 

To embody in perfection, the divine in human 
mould. 



IX. HUMANITY 



IX. HUMANITY 

T UST a touch of human pathos falls upon 
^ the marbles rare : 

Shadow of the pain and suffering, sorrow and 
the slow despair, 

That becloud the charms and sweetness, till 

fast fades the lovely guise ; 
As harsh Nature wrought to perfect being, but 

to agonize 

With decay her promised full fruition and 
alluring hope ; 

And she framed all beauty with insidious, con- 
stant foes to cope. 

131 



13 2 ^be ipalace of Vision 

Ct Like a harp some master's skill had tireless 

wrought for perfect tone, 
Loving shaped, and spanned with golden 

strings, should yet his toil disown, 

And, within its tuneful being, must some fal- 
tering discord bear ; 

Lest its song, too fine and sweet for earth, 
perfection should declare : 

In the finer human moulding framed for vigor, 
wrought for health. 

Full attuned in mystic functions, some malig- 
nant power by stealth 

Still must work to its undoing ; lest a life 

without alloy, 
Lived as God had planned its being, were for 

earth too perfect joy. 

€t Marble carved, disclosing full the splendor 

of the charming guise ; 
Miracle of beauty and surpassing shape, which 

deifies 



Mumanfti^ 1 3 3 

All the gross of earthliness : the marble is 

sweet woman still ; 
How its crystal gleaming coldly speaks her 

fairer charms, that thrill 

Soft as petaled white of lilies. In its colder 

gleam there lies 
Touch of wonder, that in warmth of facile 

colors meets the eyes : 

When in wooded dell remote, on bank of lin- 
gering stream, is seen 

Nymph of loveliness, — as Henner draws 
within a landscape green. 

Gleaming white in sweet surprise, — a spirit 

touch in sylvan space, 
Crowning Nature's mystic beauty with a 

woman's wistful grace. 

CL Could but thrill and flush of life the per- 
fect form with glow endue; 

Could within the fair habiliments some art a 
soul imbue, 



134 TTbe palace ot Dision 

Mating beauty spiritual with earthly loveliness, 
for one 

Brief, enchanted hour : the real of poet's no- 
blest dreams were won. 

€t Fair is woman ; as the birds and flowers, 

the sky and moon, are fair ! 
Fair is soul of woman ; some celestial influence 

lingers there, 

Which transcends all raptures of the world of 

sense ; an essence fine 
Sweet reposes in her spirit : she was formed a 

sacred shrine, 

Where the purest fires of love might burn 

with heaven's light on earth, 
Where the worship of the heart might rise ; 

and miracle of birth, 

Passing life from life, should win the higher 

miracle of soul. 
€t Fair beyond the grasp of reason, how its 

utmost bounds unroll 



IKumanitis 135 

With a beauty high above all human need, is 

womankind : 
How the spiritual in earthly beauty is denied 

by mind, 

Meanly set to find in Nature naught but mat- 
ter's grosser laws ; 

Naught of soul in love beyond affinity, which 
draws 

Form to form appropriate to gender but the 

stronger brute, 
Who shall pass the gift of life to vigor still 

more resolute. 

d. Base is bald Materialism, and base the in- 
tellect, that sees 

Naught of soul unsearchable in all the complex 
mysteries, 

Nature part reveals. And vain is boast that 

mocks a God unseen. 
Holding matter and its laws for Him ; that 

makes of linked machine 



13 6 Zbc iPalace ot Vision 

Cause and Power which framed its members : 
for the mind that pHes content, 

But in round of matter, makes that essence 
which was symbol meant ! 

d. Depths unsounded of the spirit with a 

mystic meaning hide 
In the eyes of woman : quick in moment 

gleam, the wistful tide 

Rises with enchantment rare and thrills the 

heart to own its spell. 
Half appeal it seems, as though the soul 

would speak, and soft impel 

Other souls to own its sweet divinity : half 
questioning. 

Through their depths serene the tender long- 
ings of the soul upspring, 

Which in kindred love would seek the wonder 

and the meaning high 
Laid upon the soul ; elusive, still, how love 

would fain reply. 



THumanlti3 13 7 

d. Fair is owned the break of summer morn- 
ing filled with life intense, 

Song of bird and myriad voices blent in strife 
of eloquence, 

Full to utter rapture of the welling life the 

hour instills. 
Fair with an ethereal splendor own we moon 

full-orbed, which fills 

Night with soft, transcendent sweetness, that is 

radiant memory 
Of the regnant sun of day ; and wistful fair 

are flower and tree. 

Yet half-veiled is Nature's beauty with the 
cloy of frequent round ; 

Harsh may grow her varied symphony of oft- 
repeated sound ; 

Hid by dust of commonplace the finer sense 

we stolid pass, 
That suffuses petaled grace, and lingers in the 

wayside grass. 



138 Ubc palace of ItJisicn 

d. Is it custom lulls the spirit's tide to calm 

of lethargy ? 
Is it use that veils in earth the deeper, finer 

mystery ? 

Do the ears grow dull to melodies, if they are 

sung again; 
May not joy grow sweet in keeping, as the 

keener grows our pain ? 

Why do common things and homeliness per- 
sist with vigorous breath, 

Whilst there lurks in ecstasy of spirit-fair but 
speedy death? 

Grows Earth weary framing beauty to its high, 

impassioned state, 
That she hides within its rapture seeds of an 

untimely fate? 

d. Olden is the cry and question, from of old 

the answer fails ; 
Silent else to the heart's entreaty, while its 

pleading naught avails. 



Mumanit^j 1 3 9 

Nature speaks an oracle, and veils its meaning 

through all time 
To the hearts aspiring ever toward the ultimate 

sublime : 

Life that falls in pleasant places with delights 

a burden grows ; 
Lives the soul in strife of growth, but languishes 

in calm repose ! 

Ct On the fair and sun-bathed landscape sud- 
den falls the angry cloud ; 

Livid glare the lightning's fires, the air is mad 
with thunders loud ; 

Wild the tempest lashes through the trees and 
sweeps with demon powers ; 

Ruthlessly the hail beats down upon the ten- 
der stock and flowers : 

All the land seems given to devastation wide 

and terrors vast ! 
Falls the tempest, distant roll the thunders ; 

and the storm is past. 



140 Ubc palace of melon 

From a rift in leaden clouds white, gleaming 

piles resplendent rise 
Towering into higher air, the sun in undimmed 

splendor vivifies ; 

Soon, their snows in very glory of the dazzling 

height dissolve ; 
Through the rifts the depths of calm are seen ; 

the angry clouds resolve 

Into softening masses, and on wings of gentlest 

breeze afloat, 
Radiant, now, with kindly light they slowly 

pass to skies remote. 

C. Deep the azure seems, as eye could pierce 

to depths of distant star ; 
Calm and clear, as some celestial rapture 

thrilled it from afar. 

Gone is haze that veiled the distant mountain, 

on its face the pines 
Sudden greet the eye ; and, startling clear, a 

blasted tree reclines, 



IKumanttis 141 

Where forgotten storm had laid it low : the 
very air is filled 

With a subtle essence from the sparkling sun- 
light fine distilled. 

On the grass and leaves resurging life has laid 

a deeper green ; 
Brighter glow the colors of the flowers with 

lucent flush and sheen ; 

All the air is filled with song and myriad utter- 
ance of joy ; 

And the earth seems new-created, freed from 
dross of its alloy. 

Gone is passion of the storm, and its wild ter- 
ror dies in calm ; 

And, for anger of the tempest, softened breezes 
lift a psalm. 

Ct Pain of human passion passed, and passed 

its strong, compelling mood ; 
When its sway imperial wavers into calm of 

lassitude : 



142 XTbc palace of IDision 

Soft there rises in the heart the reign of in- 
fluence tender, mild, 

Balmy, as some heavenly air dispelled the 
body's fury wild. 

Melodies sing sweetly low with flush of shame 

in undertone 
Penitential — for repentance may be passion 

weary grown. 

€1, On the sense so quickened to the utmost 

pulse of fullest life, 
Gently does the soul descend ; it makes of 

body passion-rife, 

Roused from apathy of commonplace, an in- 
strument attuned. 

Full responsive in accordant mood, to soul 
that importuned 

Torpor of the life habitual in vain. Its climax 

wrought. 
Passion wanes while spirit's power sublime 

ascends : and calmer thought 



TKumantts 143 

Through its quickened mood of sense alert, 
beholds a supersense 

Using earthliness for symbol of divine intelli- 
gence ; 

Sees transcendent beauties where it erst had 

found mere comeliness, 
Which, beyond the earthly need, the Beautiful 

alone express. 

Ct Light of some diviner meaning breaks upon 

the human form 
Tender in its sweet appealing, when has passed 

the passion's storm : 

Fair beyond mere earthly moulding are en- 
chanting curve and line, 

Charm of soft, white gleaming ; where the 
wavering veins entwine 

Traceries so exquisite, as hidden faint in mar- 
ble shone 

Blue of sapphires, which in jeweled streams 
had once infused the stone. 



144 ^be palace of IDlsion 

And the fairness seems more message of a 

spirit-word to men, 
Moving them with finest rapture to exalted 

vision's ken 

Of the meaning high and holy, God has laid 

on Nature's ways, 
Wrought in myriad hints of beauty for his 

own exalted praise. 

SWARTHMORE, 1902. 



COMMENTARIA 



COMMENTARIA 



The classification of a poetical work is a pleasing 
aid toward its appreciation and acceptance. If the 
attitude of the author toward his work has been a 
serious one, the classification of this verse among 
the various poetical forms will relieve much of the 
confusion of a first reading and increase the pleasure 
of its perusal. 

While the personal sensibilities of the author may 
lead him to hesitate to apply the rigid methods of 
classification and analysis, which the critic is free to 
employ toward a work wholly objective to him ; 
should the author decide to play the part of the an- 
alyst, he is, perhaps, better qualified to reveal the 
inner and essential construction of his work. This 
is not a plea that the author may, in a preeminent 
degree, be the critic of his own verse. If this verse 

147 



148 ^bc palace ot meion 

were constructed and indited purely by intellectual 
processes, this conclusion would be warranted ; but, 
when the writer is possessed of a truly poetical en- 
dowment, whatever he may otherwise be intellectu- 
ally, the construction of his verse will have emanated 
from the deeper spiritual, rather than the intellectual 
domain ; and his results will have been obtained 
through the subtleties of inspiration, and not by the 
merely logical processes. 

C The preceding poem is allegorical in a definite 
and relevant sense. The great exemplar of poetical 
allegory is Spenser's Faerie ^ueene, and it is the 
commonly accepted criterion for verse of its class. 
While the present allegory may show some similar- 
ity with this criterion, it must be distinguished from 
it. Its appeal is more directly to the subjective 
vision, and the deeper emotional and spiritual sense. 
It clothes itself in a material environment only to 
frame and embody a spiritual significance. It seeks 
a noble abode which imagination rears in its own 
realm. If such a literary appeal should need some 
vindication beyond itself, there may be instanced 
Thomson's Castle of Indolence, and Tennyson's 
Palace of Art. 

Permitting the deeper significance of the poem to 
indicate its classification, it will be found to belong 



Commentatia 149 

to a middle class between the lyric and epic forms. 
While in its movement the poem is lyrical, it is 
concerned with an expression of the noblest spirit- 
ual phases in he life of the individual ; and it is 
occupied with certain dominant and universal emo- 
tions, aspirations and reflections which belong to 
the deeper history of life. 

C A comparative reading of modern verse is con- 
vincing that poetry is growing more complex in its 
mood and structure. There is an increasing diffi- 
culty in its classification among the accepted and 
classical forms. This is, perhaps, equivalent to an 
acknowledgment that our poetry is becoming more 
subjective, while it is more faithfully voicing our 
intricate and varied civilization. This tendency, if 
the characterization is allowed, is the chief hope ot 
our literature. The older and over-cultivated fields 
are closing to the modern writer, but there is open- 
ing before him a vista of almost infinite breadth 
and extent. 

What subject - matter may be appropriate for 
poetry, is ultimately to be decided by discriminating 
taste and poetical intuition. The more ardent and 
readily expressed emotions have supplied the usual 
themes for verse, and have commonly been its 



150 tlbe IPalace Of Dision 

inspiration ; and this has occurred to the extent that 
these subjects have dominated and characterized the 
great body of our verse. So tacitly is it assumed 
that a writer shall conform his subject-matter to 
these conventional moods, that one, w^ho does not 
so conform, is placed under the necessity to justify 
and defend his selection, and make a plea for his 
motives. 

However, upon closer analysis, this insisted-upon 
conformity is really a demand upon the writer, that 
he play the part of the artisan and write y^r his pub- 
lic, rather than he may be true to his art as he 
apprehends it. 

A melodious movement in a musical composition 
makes both a direct and a popular appeal. This 
rhythmical cadence and succession of sonorous 
phrases is in so close accord with the inherent spir- 
itual tendencies of the musically appreciative hearer, 
that he easily resigns himself to the sway of the 
melody. Yet melody is not the highest attainment 
in the musical art : this is found chiefly in the so- 
nata, and the more highly developed symphony ; 
and in these forms musical inspiration and art reach 
their ultimate expression. 

In contrast with the overbearing swing of the 
melody, they offer the simplicity of a noble theme 



Commcntaria 151 

developed and wrought with a divine skill into a 
creation which is the noblest spiritual conception of 
harmony. From its very nature the symphony is 
less popular, since it is less readily comprehended, 
and demands for its appreciation a rich spiritual 
experience. 

The analogues of the melodic and symphonic 
musical forms are found in the kindred art of poetry. 
The song or lyric — quiet or impassioned, — the 
drama and like poetical forms, are essentially me- 
lodic when not baldly narrative ; and these lie close 
to the popular experience and prevalent emotional 
states ; and their appeal is immediate. Beyond 
these experiences and states there are spiritual 
heights, where thought, reflection and aspiration 
may strive for something nobler and sublimer, 
seeking for the ultimate in human expression. 

Poetical inspiration is readily granted to the me- 
lodic forms of verse ; but the critic and reader, alike, 
may pause and hesitate to allow this quality to that 
verse, which is analogous to the symphonic musical 
form. The cry of passion, the passing song, and 
the elegy of sorrow, do not compass the utmost of 
human spiritual possibilities ; there are noble re- 
flections which may be sublimer, and aspirations 
which may approach nearer the ultimate of human 



152 ^be ipalace ot Dision 

possibility. Noble and elevated in themselves, they 
are more abiding than the sentiments of immediate 
human response. 

It is to be conceded that poetical efforts of this 
character are beset with especial difficulties. Reflec- 
tion may easily fall into the beaten routine of phil- 
osophy, and become mere logic, or duller ethics ; its 
proper mode of expression, then, is assuredly direct 
and plain prose. Reflection, too, is apt to descend 
into conventional moralities, or trite formulas ; and 
didactic poetry is rarely otherwise than tedious. 

The limitations of this elevated class of verse are 
exceptionally severe ; and its slightest deviations 
readily become positive defects. Among English 
classics Paradise Lost is analogous with the sym- 
phonic form in music. Yet in the eighth Book the 
reader unpleasantly realizes that there is no inherent 
unity between the superb verse-movement and the 
highly wrought recitation of systems of astronomy 
and natural philosophy. The incongruity and arti- 
ficiality of these lines prove how dangerous is the 
ground where the most exalted genius is led aside. 
CE. A final test of exalted poetry is that it shall pre- 
serve its inspiration while keeping close to realities 
which are capable of poetical expression. Such 
poetry, to be acceptable, must not endeavor to bring 



Commentaria 153 

the mind into intimacy and conviction with subjects 
which transcend the accepted and usual experience ; 
or it must not reach after the unusual and fantastic. 
Poetry is at its best office when it voices and elevates 
the noblest in thought and emotion ; and it must do 
this by a process of reasoning proper for verse. This 
propriety is reasoning by the grouping and associa- 
tion of poetical images, and the poetical intuition 
must be allowed to transcend the more formal and 
logical processes. 

C. It is the pleasant privilege of an author to take 
his readers into his confidence, and frankly recite the 
sources from which he has written. The Palace of 
Vision was suggested by a ripple of song which came 
unconsciously to the author, and is given, slightly 
modified, in the opening lines. The plan — for it 
can not be called a plot — grew from this suggestion 
by the natural processes of expansion. 

Probably the debt of suggestion may be large to 
one of Hawthorne's tales,"^ which has an abiding 
charm for the writer. An author can not estimate 
clearly the influence of subtle suggestions from the 
memories of his reading, however anxious and con- 
scientious he may be to separate what is his own 

*" A Select Party ;" Mosses from an Old Manse. 



154 Ebe palace Of Dision 

from the unconscious blending with the work of an- 
other. By the happy alchemy of environment and 
association one grows into the heritage of his own 
times from the classical past. Yet he most gener- 
ously repays his debt, who enlarges his patrimony 
and bends his literary efforts to increase and enrich 
the traditional literature of his own language. 

From the intimacy with which much of the re- 
flection in this present poem is associated with certain 
paintings and sculptures, apparently the author must 
attribute some influence to the Palace of Art. This 
would be frankly acknowledged had the poem in any 
conscious manner determined the present work. 
C The metrical form was determined by the note 
of the song itself ; and, as this was suitable for the 
developing plan of the poem, it was adopted. So far 
as influence can be attributed in such cases, the 
meter was suggested by the lines, 

" Like a strain of wondrous music rising up 

in cloister dim, 
Through my life's unwritten measures thou 

dost steal, a glorious hymn ! " * 

This lyrical strain was a favorite with Whittier, 

*E. D. Proctor, in the Atlantic Monthly y vol. i. 
page 566. 



Commcntaria 15 5 

among our own poets ; and is, perhaps, recalled to 
the general reader more familiarly from its use in 
Locksley Hall. 

Such a metrical form is difficult to maintain 
throughout a lengthy poem. Its exceptionally strong 
beat is apt to grow monotonous ; and, if the caesura 
at the end of the fourth cadence "^ ( foot ) is rigor- 
ously placed with mathematical exactness, the verse 
will become circumscribed by this restriction and 
lose in virility and variety. Such precision, too, 
may react upon the sentiment, until it becomes 
artificial and the thought trite and commonplace. 

The rhyme of the couplets is scarcely less evident 
than their beat. To prevent this from being too 
insistent in a succession of couplets having both em- 
phatic beat and rhyme, the run-on line may be 
frequently used ; and this, too, will relieve the mo- 
notonous suspense of the ear for the final sound. 
Additional variety in the movement of the lines may 
be obtained legitimately by shifting the caesura. 
But too much virtue may be laid to the run-on line. 
If it is properly introduced in the natural flow of 
elevated expression, it is an added grace to the verse ; 

* An interesting nomenclature of metrical structure 
is given in the Memoranda to the Poems of Tennysouy 
edited by Dr. Henry Van Dyke, page cxiii. 



1 5 6 Zhc palace of msion 

but the device used artificially takes away from what 
is really prose its very semblance of verse. 

A trochaic measure so emphatic apparently de- 
mands the rigorous adherence to the initial accent 
in each line. In shorter trochaic measures an iam- 
bic, or inflected stress, may occasionally be used 
with pleasing effect ; but this same license does not 
prove appropriate for the stately lines of the longer 
measure. Nor does this measure permit the use of 
the anapestic stress, except in rare cases where the 
lyrical movement or the grammatical continuity 
requires it. The easy, careless flow of the anapest 
proves rather inimical to the stately seriousness of 
this meter. Whether naturally, or by consent, this 
stately meter has become accepted for sententious 
expression ; and any variation from its strictly ca- 
nonical form must be employed with caution and 
discretion. 

C These observations have been followed by the 
author so far as it seemed advisable. In rapid 
lyrical movements run-on lines have been used 
naturally ; and in less emotional passages, when the 
movement of the thought permitted. The caesura 
has been purposely shifted to relieve the monotony 
of the verse and adjust the meter to the inward 
movement of the passage. Again, in those sections 



Commentaria 1 5 7 

which were descriptive or purely reflective, the 
position of the pause was varied with broad license ; 
or it was omitted altogether, though this practice is 
an innovation. The sustained stress, or the classical 
spondee, is a legitimate variation which at times 
becomes singularly appropriate ; and this device has 
been employed in a number of passages. 
C The various sections, or cantos of the poem, 
severally bear a title-word expressing the dominant 
sentiment, and which may serve to fix the passage 
in memory. The author acknowledges his obliga- 
tions for the suggestion of the use of such descriptive 
titles to his friend, Professor John Russell Hayes. 

C. In many musical works having the form of the 
sonata, or the symphony, a characteristic method of 
composition is employed which is singularly beau- 
tiful and appropriate to this mode of art. The 
theme is not immediately pronounced broadly and 
with power. The introductory chords create for it 
an atmosphere of suggestion ; the theme is presently 
hinted and sounds vaguely amid noble phrases. The 
suggestion being the while supported by appropriate 
harmonies, the composer repeats the hint of the 
theme, perhaps modified and more distinct ; until, 
finally, with all the resources of his art the developed 



158 ^bc palace Of IDision 

theme is pronounced simply, nobly, and with all the 
persuasion and eloquence of its melody. 

This method of composition which admittedly is 
an excellence in the musical art, is not infrequently 
misunderstood when attempted in a literary mode. 
But the reasons are not more apparent for its censure 
in writings, than its approbation in music. 

The reader of this poem is introduced to the 
theme of the first canto by this same device of com- 
position. While the theme, which presented to the 
imagination at once in its full demand, might appear 
fantastic, by creating for itself an appropriate atmos- 
phere of suggestion it may make its own appeal to a 
memory of similar fancies and reflections, which 
many persons are wont to create and cherish. 

Fancy, pages 16-17 

While the air is thrilled with secrets that on 
dawn and sunset lie. 

This line is a suggestion of the conception which 
is developed in the succeeding verses. The secrets 
are the melody and harmony of the play of light, and 
we can only surmise these from their physical anal- 
ogy with musical sounds both in their blending and 
shading. Expression is given to this poetical fancy 



Commcntaria 15 9 

in several portions of this poem, but more clearly in 
the verses found on page 17, and especially in these 
lines. 

And the sheen breaks into music of a choral 
glow of fire 

Sung in myriad waves of color, sweet at- 
tuned in radiant choir. 

This thought has been expressed by the author in 
the Hymn to the Intellect, and its significance pointed 
out in an explanatory note to this poem.* In these 
lines the appeal is both natural and logical, and not 
merely rhetorical. With persons of a lively and 
sensitive appreciation blended colors may suggest 
musical sounds ; and musical harmonies, in turn, 
may resolve themselves into a perception of colors. 
Persons so endowed have, it may be, a subtle sense, 
which the more evident sensations of sight and hear- 
ing ultimately excite. Aside from these obscure 
distinctions, there is a physical reality for the con- 
ception of a blending of colors as a * radiant choir.' 
The witchery and charm of sweet sounds in full 
accord linger in a surpassing and exquisite degree in 
the play of blending lights. Singularly too, many 

* The Wreck of the Myrtle, page 89 ; the explanatory 
Notes, page 123. 



160 ^be palace of \Di6ion 

expressions descriptive of sounds are borrowed from 
the phraseology of color. 

Devotion, page 29 

It may be objected that the conception of Devo- 
tion which is presented in this canto, is not adequate 
and universal ; that it wavers between the pagan 
worship of the beautiful in Nature and the essentials 
of the formulated faiths. A reply to this must be 
the poem itself. In it nothing is intended beyond 
the free and untrammeled expression of the emotion 
of devotion ; its plea is the universal freedom of Art 
from the restrictions of Convention and Belief. It 
does not propose to be practical and ethical, but 
rather deals with that intuitive emotion from which 
these aspects of faith have grown. The description 
in the opening lines of the canto is not taken from 
concrete works of art ; it is drawn from Nature and 
is an expression of personal reflections and passing 
impressions. 

Devotion, page 33 

Lone upon a wooded hillside y with a faith 
unquestioning. 

Human hands have reared an altar, with- 
out tool and fashioning. 



Commentaria 1 6 1 

In the north hall of the Congressional Library is 
a series of small panels which were painted by- 
Charles Sprague Pearce. The theme of the first 
panel is Religion : before a rude stone altar there 
kneel two worshipers ; while the smoke of the sac- 
rifice ascends one, the man, kneels with head bowed 
in his hands, and the other, a young woman, bends 
her head in reverence. From this painting was 
received the suggestion for the theme of the canto. 
On an occasion, an artist analyzed the picture so 
intelligently and vividly for the author, that from the 
impressions then received there presently developed 
the theme and detail of this passage. 

In the poem Pearce's conception has been ideal- 
ized for the purposes of the writing, and possibly the 
verse elaborates the artist's conception beyond his 
intention. Yet in the apparently descriptive lines 
no effort was made to narrate formally the features 
of the painting, but its scene was modified to the 
requirements of the verse. 

An artist usually regards with disfavor a literary 
interpretation of his work; and generally there is 
ground for his prejudice, as most writers do not 
competently estimate and interpret the technical 
handling of his theme. In this instance, however, 
no attempt has been made to interpret a painting in 



162 ^be ipalace ot Dfsion 

a literary sense, and any approach to this is casual ; 
the design of the one simply was suggestive of a 
plan for the other. 

Nobility, page 49 

Through the radiant distance break in misty 

gleam of ravishment y 
That with warmth of life seems glowing, 

•jt * * * * 

Forms that grace some fragrant woodland. 

A remarkable painting by Courtois, A la Source, 
and some kindred works by Le Febvre, were the 
inspiration for these lines and similar passages of this 
work. 

Nature, page 59 

It is not singular that the works of Corot should 
inspire literary expression ; his idealized landscapes 
are themselves lyrics of Nature. The scene which 
opens with these lines. 

Fair outspreads a quiet valley distant walled 

by gentle hills 
Lying in caressing sunshine, dimmed by 

mellowing haze, — 



Commentacla 163 

owes its suggestion to an exquisite landscape now in 
the Wilstach collection in the galleries at Fairmount 
Park, Philadelphia. 

Nature, pages 60-63 

Not of earth the forest glimmers with a 
faintly struggling gleam. 

What is included in these pages is in part an 
interpretation and, perhaps in some degree, an ideal- 
ization of certain woodland scenes by Diaz which 
portray his favorite theme, the forest of Fontaine- 
bleau. The works of Diaz more especially referred 
to in this section, are the Forest of Fontainebleau, at 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and 
the Coming Storm, in the Gibson collection of the 
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. 

Affliction, page 78 

Where, from wreck of columned temple, one 

scathed shaft yet rises high. 
As it held the watch of empire for a King- 
passed by. 



In this canto the universal experience of sorrow 
has been voiced. It opens with a scene of desert 



164 G;be palace Of Dlsion 

prospect, where are still to be seen some reminders 
of a more happy past. But sorrow is retrospective, 
and on its present unhappy prospect it seeks to 
revive the memories of its past pleasures. What 
imagery has been employed in this canto, was de- 
vised from such illustrations as one commonly sees 
depicting the ruined temples of Karnak and Luxor 
at Thebes. Familiar to all readers, these decayed 
and deserted ruins seem to mourn the loss of their 
former magnificence and grandeur. 

On its unhappy prospect Sorrow restores the 
verdure and life of the cherished past. Among the 
shrines where the devotions of a happier life were 
offered, the Temple of Love was the altar favored 
with its ardor ; in the shadow of this charmed fane 
life was song, and the guardian Presence of the tem- 
ple was adored as a gentle deity. When shrine and 
templed grove, fountains and pleasant prospect, alike 
had shared in the inevitable desolation and common 
ruin, above the scene of its woe the Presence still 
lingers, transfigured from earthliness into an abiding 
spiritual reality. In some mysterious fashion Nat- 
ure is the type, or the shadow, for the spiritual life 
of mankind, and, in those external changes which it 
slowly undergoes, pictures enduringly the swiftly 
passing experiences of human life. 



Commentarta 165 

Incarnation, page 96 

Sundered far by tide and nation are the 

forms that memory 
Here has garnered. 

These marbles are the statues of Adonis by Thor- 
valdsen, and the no less poetical Evening by Ruck- 
stuhl. The beautiful Adonis stands in the center of 
the hall of modern art in the Glyptothek, Munich ; 
and the statue. Evening, which is incomparable for 
its fidelity and natural beauty, as well as its superb 
modeling, is in the collection of marbles at the 
Metropolitan Museum of Art. On pages 104 and 
118, these works are suggested more explicitly. 

Wisdom, page 10 i 

Under spell of lovely shape, that Melos 

yielded from her past. 
Carved, perchance, by hand of lover. 

The Venus of Milo is a preeminent subject in art, 
which appears invested by an enduring charm and 
romantic interest. Though the attempts at the res- 
toration of the physical statue have been numerous 
and various, the kindred art of literature has sought 
in its own way to restore this being to her former 



1 6 6 ^be ipalace ot IPiaion 

tender and exquisite loveliness. One of the most 
beautiful and interesting of these efforts is the poem. 
The Venus of Milo* by Edward Rowland Sill. 

Wisdom, page 104 

Not the stature of the giant, does the mar- 
ble celebrate ; 
Brute with other brutes contending. 

Thorvaldsen's more spiritual conception is here 
contrasted with the emphatic and exaggerated lines 
in the modeling of Michelangelo. Criticism is not 
so much implied, as a protest is uttered against the 
popularly mistaken conception of the attribute of 
strength in art. 

Wisdom, page 107 

Fashioned like a god, the statue symboling 
Apollo^ s form. 

In this passage poetical license has been taken 
with the fact, in order to emphasize the meaning ; 
the verse clothes the formal statue of Adonis with 
the nobler attributes of Apollo. 

* Poems y by Edward Rowland Sill ; Houghton, 
Mifflin and Company, 1887 ; page i. 



Commentacta 167 

Tenderness, page 126 

As the artist far had searched through classic 
shapes and visions fair 

For the utmost loveliness ; and from his bar- 
ren toiPs despair 

Had in Nature sought, and found y at last, 
an incarnation pure. 

No effort has been directly made, in this and sim- 
ilar passages, to contrast the methods of realism 
with other supposed methods. An appeal is made 
simply and frankly to the incarnation of the elements 
of beauty and loveliness in Nature. Instead of 
insisting upon tedious argument over an exhausted 
theme, these lines and passages convey a conviction 
of one who accepts Nature rationally and, where 
the vision fails, ultimately; but who is persuaded 
that he perceives something of unity between many 
material and spiritual manifestations. 



THE FIRST PRINTING 

CL This book is composed in Caslon types, 
and printed on " Old Downshire " wove 
paper, made by the Mittineague mills. 

C Five hundred copies have been primed 
for this edition. 



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